Mildred Faintly
Mildred Faintly is a transgender woman; Her translation of Else Lasker-Schüler’s first book of poetry, Styx, is being brought out this spring by Ben Yehuda Books, and her translation of the Ancient Egyptian tale, “The Case of Horus vs. Seth” by Daniel 13.
Her life project is to provide accessible, elegant, literary translations of the most poetry written by women world-wide. This will include:
collections of folk poetry with significant content of undisputed female authorship:
(from the Bible) The Song of Solomon, the Song of Deborah;
The Therigatha
The Ancient Chinese Classic of Poetry (this link gives access to the first third)
Individual women poets:
Li Qing Zhao (Chinese)
Vidya (Sanskrit)
Gippius (Russian)
Mascha Kaléko (German)
Rachel Bluwstein (Hebrew) Her first book, Anew, to be followed soon by the rest of her poetical works.
As part of the same project, but deserving their own category, are the works of the great lesbian poets:
(from Yiddish) of the complete poems of Anna Margolin, titled Lower East Suicide.
Sappho, complete, Greek and English, Sappho for Girls.
Renée Vivien, Tentative Melodies, too be followed soon by her other books of poetry.
The Margolin, Sappho, and Vivien are looking for a publisher.
Mildred Faintly has self-published on archive.org her own book of poetry, A Peep out of Me , regarding which she notes,
” Other people’s poetry is like other people’s pets: untidy, annoying, and nothing you want in your house. If only it were like other people’s perversions: conveyed in few words and endlessly entertaining. Well, Ms. Faintly’s poetry is like a perverted pet that does amusing tricks. Hope that helps.” [This book is also in search of a publisher].
In her work as a reviewer and editor here, though intrinsic merit is always the decisive consideration, Mildred is actively interested in writing by women and LGBTQ persons.
